Woman Who Walks Cats

 

4/20/24 diary comic from memory

For the second half of my 30-day self-challenge to make daily diary comics, I have been focusing on developing narrative – whether the content is drawn on location or drawn from memory or imagination. This one from last Saturday is the best example so far of the kind of comics I am aspiring to: written and drawn from memory but based on actual observations and experiences – and no self-absorbed bellybutton gazing.

Walking home through my favorite alley, I met a woman and her two cats. After our brief interaction, I couldn’t wait to get home to draw the diary comic as quickly as possible while the images were still fresh in my memory. My comic compadre Roy and I regularly exchange comics, ideas and resources and discuss the genre. He made the excellent suggestion that my comic would have benefited from a third panel showing the woman and her cats walking away, for example. The three-panel beginning, middle and end is a classic story arc that works well with almost everything. I concur that it would have been better to end with a third image. My limitation in this case was the page size and format. I couldn’t fit another sketch on the page (the other half of the spread had already been used for other sketches), and it didn’t seem “right” visually to put a lone sketch on the next page. Planning sketches on a comic page layout is similar to planning a composition – both of which take practice! But I’m learning and loving the practice.

4/17/24 memory sketch

Speaking of practice, sometimes I make sketches that don’t get as far as becoming comics, but I still benefit from the practice. Shown here is a scene I witnessed on a different walk. Spotting a bunny, a man’s dog suddenly went ballistic, startling everyone involved, including me. It might become a comic someday, but it was important to capture the gestures right after my walk while still fresh.

Walk Comics

 

4/16/24 Mostly sketches made on location during my walk to Northgate, this page spread also includes an imaginary bit at upper left and the purpose of my trip to the optician. I use the FitBit footprint icon the number of steps I clocked, and the number of "active" walking that day to signify that this comic spread represents a walk I took. It is my diary, after all, where I have always tracked health and fitness goals.

Since even before the pandemic, sketching has been a regular part of my daily fitness-walking routine whenever weather permits (and sometimes when it doesn’t). In fact, the potential for a sketch has always been the carrot at the end of my exercise stick.

My sketch subjects haven’t changed – they’re still the mundane bits I find along my walking route. The difference now since I discovered the comic format for urban sketching is that the same sketches have context.

4/17/24 Maple Leaf and Green Lake neighborhoods. It's fun to mix different line widths available with a Flair Dual pen. I'll be reviewing it soon.

Instead of floating singularly on the page, the small sketches are linked by the story of my walk that day. Although it’s not exactly a narrative with a story arc, it shows how, within walking distance, one neighborhood can include both a luxury convertible Porsche and a tent for a homeless individual. Or maybe the story is nothing more than a typical Thursday morning in Maple Leaf when trash is collected and squirrels run by.

4/18/24 Maple Leaf neighborhood

4/20/24 Maple Leaf neighborhood

Maple Leaf’s Most Iconic Intersection

 

4/18/24 The intersection of 88th NE and Roosevelt Way NE, Maple Leaf

Cloud City Coffee was the site of some of my earliest urban sketches, and I’ve sketched there many times since. On a fabulous afternoon last week – it was 62 degrees and sky the couldn’t have been bluer – I noticed that the shop had gotten several new outdoor tables. After its recent remodel that includes a new tented area, the new tables are no longer blocked by parked cars, so I had a better view.

A fresh Uglybook cracked open! I filled the last one in less than 2 weeks!

Behind Cloud City’s iconic sign is an even bigger icon: Maple Leaf’s beloved water tower (also one of my earliest urban sketches). I made a page of small sketches celebrating spring’s arrival (officially recognized as whenever I have my first iced latte al fresco) and possibly Maple Leaf’s most iconic intersection.

Technical note: Although it probably doesn’t look like a comic, I consider this a comic-y diary because I made a more conscious effort to tell a story about this intersection, not just make random sketches of whatever I see. Does it help to seem more comic-y to include commentary as I did? Maybe in a traditional comic, a character (or persona of the author) would be making those comments in voice bubbles, but I also know that some comic artists write text as captions. Super excited about this new format for my urban sketches, I’m having fun trying out different things to make it my own.

Comic Diaries with Roy

 

4/17/24 The panel at upper left was imaginary. The rest of the page spread was sketched on location at Third Place Commons in Lake Forest Park. 

My friend Roy has become a comic diary afficionado as I have. We met at Third Place Commons last week to talk about the process, exchange ideas and, of course, make comic pages. Fans of comic artist and urban sketcher Drewscape, we were both taken with his video about “real-time” autobiographical comics. It’s really no different from the kind of urban sketching Roy and I always do, but framing the practice with a comic approach gives context and “story” to drawing whatever we happen to see or experience.

I really admire and aspire to Roy’s sequential narrative and strong graphic appearance. Learning from him, I’m trying to apply more solid blacks to backgrounds, which adds to the comic book look and serves as a compositional tool to aid the viewer’s eye. You’ll see more of my attempts in tomorrow’s post.

Look how comic-booky Roy's page spread looks! I aspire to that -- or my own version of that.

Spring Comics

 

4/15/24 Maple Leaf neighborhood

Just as I was lackadaisical about keeping up with my sketch journal last year, I was also lax in doing as much nature sketching as I had intended to. Now that spring is here, it’s the best time to say it again: I want to do more nature sketching. And maybe this year I’ll actually do it and not just say it!

Dazzled by all the color I saw on my walk one morning last week, I picked out a few blossoms to sketch. Since the comic book layout I learned from Drewscape has been working well with my urban sketches, I thought it would be fun to try it with nature sketches, too. There’s no sense of narrative or story, of course; it’s more of a visual structure. Simply drawing a box around a couple of flowers immediately designs the page better than blossoms randomly floating on the page. I also sketched one Kwanzan cherry tree from a distance to balance the close-ups of the other three vignettes – another tip from Drewscape taken from comic book design.

Looking again at this page, I take back what I said about a lack of narrative: It’s about taking a walk on a lovely morning warm enough to stop four times for small sketches filled with color. If that’s not a story of spring, what is?

Sunshine, Watercolors and Comics at U Village

 

4/19/24 University Village

The requested sunshine was delivered for USk Seattle at U Village last Friday, and we all agreed the temperature and conditions were nearly ideal: 66 degrees with a clear blue sky!

Arriving a little early, I found a sunny spot and started sketching immediately to stay warm. The rest of the morning continued apace – one small sketch after another until I filled a spread in my bright yellow Uglybook that seemed to reflect the day’s sunshine (top of post).

4/19/24 Why do I keep torturing myself?

I was having so much fun that I could have immediately started another spread, but I thought I “should” do a watercolor. Since I knew that comfy benches and tables were plentiful at U Village, I felt compelled to bring along my watercolor palette and A5-size Hahnemühle sketchbook. I found a suitable composition and even dutifully made a thumbnail first in my Field Notes, but I admit I didn’t enjoy using watercolors nor the result (at left) nearly as much as I do comic-style urban sketching with markers. I should stop torturing myself with watercolors and just embrace me doing me!

With that over with, I sighed with relief and happily pulled out my smaller A6 Hahnemühle for another comic-like spread (below). White paper enables me to use a little color – I’d be happy with that if I could just let watercolors go.

After the meetup, I stayed to have lunch with Natalie and Oralea. (U Village is great for that because everyone can choose what they want from the many food venues and meet later at the community tables.) The busy ramen shop I chose required a bit of a wait, so that got me started on another page (below). Then when I unwrapped my takeout, it turned out to be a “kit” that I wish had come with assembly instructions. The toppings, the noodles and the broth each came in its own plastic layer, and then all the layers snapped together into a covered bowl. Whew! I was already starving before I started, but I certainly worked up an even bigger appetite by the time I got all the parts together.

Sketchwaiting at Hokkaido Ramen Santouka and illustration of my takeout ramen "kit"

I realized too late that I should have taken photos of the elaborate packaging. To make up for it, I sketched an “exploded view” of the kit.

Evolution of a Comic Diary

 

2/5/24 Most of my early sketch journal/comic diary entries were simple observations I had made that day, usually on my walks.

Late last year I quietly (that is, by not sharing the results on social media) restarted the sketch journal habit that I had previously let fall to the wayside several times. Keeping it up daily, I reported on my progress in January.

3/6/24 I still find it especially challenging to imagine and 
then draw myself in various scenarios.

Around the same time, Drewscape’s YouTube videos and his comic book approach to urban sketching opened my mind to telling stories with multiple small scenes on a page. As often happens on the YouTube rabbit trail, I then became intrigued by the comic diaries of Drewscape and others. In fact, I revisited my own exploration of Lynda Barry’s books on comic diaries a few years ago. With all of these fascinating methods and ideas for telling personal, visual stories crashing around in my brain, my daily sketch journal habit began to morph organically (without my pushing consciously in one direction or the other). To reinforce the habit and encourage more organic morphing, I challenged myself (again, quietly) to make a comic diary entry daily for 30 days beginning April 1.

Since I’m more than halfway through the month, it’s a good time to share some of my progress and process (which actually interest me more than whatever results I may end up with).

As with other self-challenges, my objective is to avoid naval-gazing (which I do enough of in my written journal) and stick as much as possible to sensory-based observations and related thoughts. Although internal monologs are unavoidable when one considers the diary format, which by definition is writing for oneself, I try to minimize that.

4/2/24 More observations

With travel planned for the first week of April, I was afraid I’d have difficulty keeping up with my self-challenge while I was away from my usual routines. Instead, travel turned out to be an ideal opportunity for a comic diary. With ongoing family activities, I couldn’t always sketch when I wanted to or spend as much time as I might if I were alone, but I made mental notes to sketch from memory later. The small sketches were easy to make during moments of downtime. I also used my photos as memory prompts and sometimes for reference.

4/8/24 A comic diary page I made from photo references and memory.

As you can see from the examples shown in this post, some entries are nothing more than crudely illustrated notations similar to my original pandemic scribble journal. They hardly resemble “comics,” even the single-panel type. Although I’ve made some attempts at using a theme (“Things I Missed/Didn’t Miss While Traveling,” below), I still have difficulty with developing a story arc visually. (As a lifelong writer, I find it ironic and frustrating that it’s much easier for me to do that with words.) That’s my goal for the rest of the month.

4/11/24 A "theme" comic from imagination

The closest I’ve come to any kind of “narrative” is the page I made after I met a friend for brunch in West Seattle’s Admiral District (below). You already saw the sketches I made on location the same day; it was an additional challenge not to duplicate what I had already sketched from life. The comic diary page (made from memory and photos) has a behind-the-scenes feeling to it – editorializing about the sketches from life. I didn’t plan to do this, but it was another organic outcome: Making the urban sketches first helped to give narrative to the diary page.

4/14/24 Based on memory and photo references, this comic diary page
is "behind-the-scenes" of the urban sketches made earlier that day.

I recently had a V-8 moment which would probably amuse others: For most of my urban sketching life (which began in 2011), I’ve been very strict with myself about keeping the sketches I make from direct observation “pure.” For example, I would never start a sketch on location, then finish it at home by embellishing it with imaginative details or polishing it up by using photo references. Unlike many urban sketchers, I don’t even add color later. It’s just my personal policy: A sketch begun onsite is finished onsite.

In the same vein, making a comic diary that includes sketches done from life alongside those made from memory or imagination was unacceptable to me. I seemed to have an unconscious desire to protect the Urban Sketchers philosophy from getting muddied (as an admin for USk Seattle, I have enough work trying to explain that philosophy to new members regularly). To avoid potential confusion, I simply kept memory/imagination sketches segregated from urban sketches.

Suddenly one day, it hit me: This is my diary, for cryin’ out loud! Most pages will not be seen by others, let alone judged for mixing urban sketches with imaginative ones. Heck, I could put sketches made from photo references right there on the same page as an urban sketch! Lightning will not strike me down!

4/13/24 The statue of James W. Washington, The Brothers and the magnolia blossom were sketched from life. The donut and poke bowl were sketched from memory -- and all of it on the same page! Lightning did not strike me!

You’re laughing, I know. I’m sure most people never think twice about mixing sketches made from a variety of sources. But after being a dyed-in-the-wool urban sketcher exclusively for most of my sketching life, evolution comes slowly.

As for materials, I am staying simple: a brush pen or other black marker in whatever is my current daily-carry Uglybook sketchbook.

Using one Uglybook as a chronological sketchbook/comic diary
makes it easy to complete in two or three weeks.

Speaking of that, I am keeping up my personal pledge to completely fill each Uglybook before switching to a new color. Although I sometimes miss the fun of jumping from color to color, the much larger benefit is that I am maintaining chronological continuity in that one book.

I still use my daily-carry A6 Hahnemühle sketchbook when I want to use color, and I also occasionally use an A5 Hahnemühle when I want a larger page, especially with watercolor or chunky Derwent Inktense Blocks. With multiple sketchbooks, I can’t keep all sketches in chronological order, but I enjoy filling the Uglybook every day with something – a sketch on location; a sketch from memory, imagination or photo reference; a comic diary entry. (Another benefit is that I complete each 48-page Uglybook much faster now – in only two or three weeks.) It’s something I’ve always wanted to do for a long time but couldn’t figure out a way to make it work. That makes it especially satisfying now.